Thigpen, spread offense nearly beat Chargers in November matchup

Yeah, now there's a National Football League résumé for you. Suitable for framing.

The stranger part is not that young master Thigpen actually got a chance to lead an NFL team so soon after coming out of such a tiny school, but that the question now is whether he's qualified to keep it. Stranger yet, the Kansas City Chiefs are no longer wondering whether Thigpen can run their attack after eight starts and seven losses, but whether to completely adopt the so-called “spread” offense for the future on the basis of his particular skill set.

Of course, we're also talking about a 2-11 team with 19 rookies. Kansas City might have been among the worst of places in the NFL the past couple of years, but it's the best of places for the 6-foot-2, 224-pound Thigpen, who grabbed a handful of the land of opportunity.

Therein, he came within a single two-point conversion pass of beating the Chargers in his first encounter with them last month at Qualcomm Stadium. That scare alone means Thigpen, 24, will have the Chargers' undivided attention Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.

“I feel like I've gotten better (since that game), yeah,” said Thigpen yesterday. “Drastically? I don't know. One or two things each week I'm correcting in my game. I've still got a long way to go, so much to learn. When it comes down to it, I guess, there's still a long road ahead of me. I can't get comfortable with anything I'm doing right now.”

The Chiefs have gotten a little more comfortable with him, adapting their entire offense to protect against his inexperience and utilize his mobility. Dropping him back into shotgun formation to keep the defense entirely in front of Thigpen's field of vision, the Chiefs give him a widened array of targets to hit with quick-hitters, albeit for shorter gains than most teams like to get with their passes. (His average of 6.11 yards per attempt ranks 27th in the NFL.)

“Put any quarterback in this offense and they'll love it,” said Thigpen, who threw just six passes as a rookie last year for Kansas City, which claimed him off waivers from Minnesota the week before the season. “You spread the field out, see where they're bringing blitzes from. You know where your 'hots' are at. It's fun. When you spread the defense out, they have to pretty much show you their bluff.”

The strategy almost worked against the Chargers, who chased Thigpen to what stands as his best overall game of the season, win-loss factor notwithstanding. Starting in shotgun formation for 38 of K.C.'s 41 pass plays, Thigpen completed 27 for 266 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, adding a couple of carries of his own for 26 yards.

Thigpen was on the move again when trying to win the game with a two-point conversion, that after he'd hit tight end Tony Gonzalez for a touchdown that made it 20-19 with 23 seconds remaining. Eschewing the tie, Thigpen turned on a bootleg that was sniffed out and thwarted by outside linebacker Shaun Phillips. The latter's stay-at-home pressure forced Thigpen to throw an awkward pass toward Gonzalez that safety Clinton Hart batted down to teammate Quentin Jammer in the end zone, saving the day for San Diego.

“I thought it was the correct call by coach (Herm Edwards) to go for it,” Thigpen said. “San Diego did a good job of playing our play, so give them a lot of credit.”

Credit for 10 catches and two TDs that day went to Gonzalez, continuing to run his own route to the Hall of Fame. Ever since the Chiefs decided not to deal him before the trading deadline, Gonzalez has returned to his long-held status as the most inviting target as a tight end, much of that owing to the fact that Thigpen got into the habit of throwing to him.

Indeed, at one point in last week's near-upset at Denver, Thigpen had to be urged to look elsewhere and share the wealth of his passing ability. He'd gotten “too hooked on Tony,” recipient of 38 passes in the past five games.

“I think when the pressure comes on, (Thigpen)'s looking for a glove, and that's the right guy to throw it to, no doubt about that,” Edwards said. “Also, I think Tony takes him to dinner once a week.”

Both the Chiefs and Chargers have won only once since their own Nov. 9 meeting, and in each case, the opponent was Oakland.

Coincidentally, the Chargers again are getting extra time to prepare for the Chiefs, who caught San Diego coming off its bye week and a change in defensive coordinators the first time around. And while the Chargers still have a molecule of a chance at the playoffs, Kansas City's playing for little more than the end of the season, by which time they'll have to decide what to do with Thigpen and their offense for 2009.

“He's got a shot, especially if we continue to play an offense that we're involved in right now,” Edwards said. “This thing has kinda evolved. We've stayed with it and it's kind of interesting.”